Above is an icon that I created over 12 years ago, in my crusade against violence. I introduce the image today, the day of silence for the blogopshere in honor of the Virginia Tech massacre. Silence is not me. Silence is not what is needed.
Violence is harmful it is not silence. Violence is brutal it is not silence. Those who commit violence acts seek our silence. Yesterday, I read a horrible story in the paper. The act speaks volume of the perpetrator. The perpetrator, sliced the throat of two young males, 10 and 12, and the third victim was lucky. Lucky I say, because she was sexually assaulted, but escaped with the stabbed wound in her neck. I was not there but no once can convince me that those two boys were not killed trying to protect their sister. I can not remain silent.
Who, where, how and what are the questions. Action is needed. It was not Cho, this time. It was not Virginia. It was not a gun. But the same harm was done. Some child at this moment is being harmed at the hands of adults, right now. Right now, while at work, someone is scheming and plotting the next act of violence. Someone will boldly step to you and rant and rage about kicking somebody behind today, tonight, whatever. You just smile drop your head, or shake it. But you remain silent. It's violence.
It may not be against you. You witness violent behavior and listen to violent words and you know it's whack. But, you say nothing. The actor Baldwin attacking the spirit of his daughter. Because he is powerful and has star power authority, he guaranteed to his daughter what he said he was going to do, he could do it. And as a child there was nothing she could do but take it. The daughter was silenced in this act of violence. Baldwin promise was what many parents urge in the threat, I brought you into the world...it's violence.
You think that's the other person's problem. With an anonymous note, hey this person need some serious help, might save someone's life. You may not be a doctor, but violence needs no doctor for a diagnosis. It needs action, intervention.
The man who killed those two young men, did not get up that morning and decide to stop being nice. Nope, he got up being his silent violent self. He simply played nice, gaining the trust of those boys' mother. He had to play nice to get inside the safe space of those children. He had to disrupt the order of the home, to wreck havoc on each member. So, he had to hold down his violence while he played nice.
The mother, thought she could reason with violence, when she uncovered it. She mistakenly took violence as something you could accommodate. She wanted to silent the violence by being nice. Violence was not nice. The mother has two sons to bury and a wounded daughter to restore. None will ever be the same, but silence is not going to stop violence from happening again.
A child is seeking the eyes of an adult for someone to tell. They want to tell that someone is not being nice. Will you act or remain silent? Read the story here. I don't think you are going to want to be silent.
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